SpudFiles

Lately Ive wanted to try pen turning and making a QDV. I looked at mini lathes but the cheapest decent lathe Ive seen is $166 and thats a bit more than I want to spend to try out turning. I ws looking around and I found a 1/4hp RC power wheels motor for 8 bucks. Do you think it has enough torque? It puts out about 7,000 RPM so ill probably use a pulley system to bring the speed down a bit. The bearings will be from old skateboard wheels. What type of power upply should I use, its a 12v motor. Does this all sound good? Heres the link to the motor.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Nichibo-Motor-12V-P ... 248wt_1139

I do pen turning as a little side job. It's fascinating the array of materials that are available for turning.

A good lathe will last you a long time, so it might be something to consider shelling out for. If you're dead set on building one though, that motor should work. Sharp tools are your friends.

Okay thanks, if I like this 30 dollar lathe I probably but the shop foxx or a jet mini bu I want to try it out before I buy one.

Do a search on high torque crawler motors. The are made to push trucks up steep things at low speeds and they are good for a lot of torque.. Definately more than a hot wheels thing.. They will run you a bit more money though. Also look at one of these:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Novak-55T-Rock-C ... 4074wt_905

They are original lathe motors for tire truing.. All these rc motors usually run off 7.2V.. Whack 12V on there and they would go hard. They are also rebuildable and cleanable for maintenance meaning they will last you a good amount of time

Thanks but from what I understand with pen lathes is that they need more speed than torque.

well then go with something like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Trinity-Midnight-2- ... 43a325bc64

You get go even faster than that and there is every level between if you want. Trust me you dont want to run that silver can. No replaceable brushes plus the work load of a lathe will result in you needing to replace the motor more often than its necessary..
With one of these rebuildables, you can just replace the brushes once they wear down, and one set of brushes will last longer than your silver can motor there, and it will give you much better performance.
Not to bash your idea, but those silver cans really are the garbage of the dc motor world

Thanks but from what I understand with pen lathes is that they need more speed than torque.

True, but it depends on what you're turning. Plastics, you generally want to turn at a much higher speed than wood. Then again, I'm impatient, so I always run my lathe a little faster than normal.

Given that the diameter of what you're turning will most likely never exceed 1.5", torque is not such a big concern.

Many materials have a recommended cutting speed. This is not measured in RPM. It is given in Feet Per Minute. Smaller diameters will need nigher speeds and larger will require lower RPM to reach the same FPM cutting speed.

More info here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speeds_and_feeds

Funny, I built a homemade lathe a while ago, and I used old skateboard bearings too. 5/16 as I recall. Here's a link if you're interested, it turned out well enough for turning o-ring grooves in PVC but I ended up buying the 8x14 MicroMark lathe anyway.

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/complet ... 18868.html

if you have a drill press try this

or a hand drill one http://blog.dugnorth.com/2007/05/grizzl ... lathe.html

clemsonguy1125 wrote:Lately Ive wanted to try pen turning and making a QDV. I looked at mini lathes but the cheapest decent lathe Ive seen is $166 and thats a bit more than I want to spend to try out turning.

You lucky ***********, I want a small lathe but I have to spend $850AUD on one.

I have a device that you put a normal power drill in which turns it into a drill press, I'm sure you've got several brain cells so you should be able to put something together.

I can get a cheap power drill for $15 and they have far more torque than a little RC motor.

I'll try something like that I think, I need some precision "tubes" so that's an option instead of buy DOM stuff.

Edit: curse you -_-, though that link is exactly what I'm talking about making/

Zeus wrote:
I have a device that you put a normal power drill in which turns it into a drill press, I'm sure you've got several brain cells so you should be able to put something together.

/

my dad actually built one of those things, my opinion is that it will destroy the bearings in the drill very quickly since the bearings in a power drill are not made for side load....

That's what im thinking, I don't want do go through drills by the dozen, sues try looking at the shop fox mini, not sure if it's in austraila though